Monday, March 28, 2011

Emo + Libya Update = ...wat

This is a post I wrote myself last Wednesday. Substantially more emo, so skip down to the news if you just want the good stuff.

Been a good spring break so far. Getting some time to relax and think leisurely about school projects and general self-improvement. It's been almost a full week of going on a 2 a day dosage of welbutrin. It's not something you can feel an obvious difference. There seems to be a bit of a change, bit that might have more to do with therapy than medication.Last night I was watching a movie at home with my girlfriend and I go to get something from my room when I see a guilty looking dog coming out as I head towards it. Sure enough, 3 more guilty dogs file out. I know that those means there will be trash and urine all over the place. My girlfriend, for the first time in the year and a half that we have been dating, saw me get mad. I yelled in frustration on seeing the dogs and knowing what it meant that they were there. I knocked into the alpha dog knowing he masterminds these pissing raids.I was so mad. And frustrated too cause its not like they know much better. And further training after the fact will do no good... what a bummer.

IN THE NEWS!!!

The Libyan anti-Gadhafi forces are making their way to Gadhafi's birthplace in an attempt to demoralize the regime supporters. The No-fly zone seems to be making quite the positive impact in the ambitions of the rebels.

Earlier, a wounded rebel with bandages on the left side of his head and face described what happened Monday about 30 kilometers (nearly 20 miles) from Sirte, near the city's main entrance.

He said he and a group of fellow opposition fighters came across a group of Gadhafi forces who raised a white flag -- a suggestion that they would not shoot. But as the opposition approached the group, the Gadhafi forces fired on them indiscriminately, killing some of the opposition members and wounding others, the rebel told CNN's Arwa Damon. Vehicles were destroyed as well, he said.- CNN.com

Since I posted last, NATO has taken over the Libyan military assistance command and had refused to take any over action in aiding any 'side' of the conflict other than maintaining the no-fly zone for the sake of the civilians.

In addition to pressing on to Gadhafi's hometown, the rebels have made a seris of advances.

The anti-Gaddafi rebels have seized a number of key coastal communities and important oil installations in recent days, including Ras Lanuf, Brega, Uqayla and Bin Jawad. - BBC.co.uk

Meanwhile, Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, has critiqued the NATO involvement in Libya stating that it is interfering in another country's civil war.

This makes for great debate. Is the conflict in Libya a civil war? If not, then what is it?

I think it could be considered a civil war, the problem is that the concept of a civil war has drastically changed since the American one. Almost all these wars in Africa have some other attachments to them that make them multifaceted wars. Civil because it is within a classically defined states. But there are also religious aspects with secular, christian, and Muslim ideologies competing. Genocidal for the persecution and execution of unwanted races. And so on. It's not pretty anyway you look at it, war is war.

As for Libya, I would lean towards calling it a civil war. Both sides aren't good though, as you have whack-ass Ghaddafi going against the rebels who are supported by al-Qaeda. No one's gonna win with this unless the proposed ceasefire is implemented.